AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



EDITED AND PUBLISHED BY SAMUEL WAGNEK, WASHINGTON, D. C. 



AT TWO DOLLARS PER ANNUM, PAYABLE IN ADVANCE. 



Vol. VI. 



JUiNE, l^'M. 



No. 12. 



'SoTth Eastern Bee-keepers' Association. 



Second Annual Meeting, 



Agkicultural Rooms, 

 Albany, J\''. Y., March 15, 1871. 



The Association was called to order by the 

 President. The Secretary being absent, J. H. 

 Nellis was chosen Secretary pro tempore. 



Tlie Report of the semi-annnal meeting held 

 at Utica was read ; but as no action was taken, 

 it was resolved that we telegraph to the Secre- 

 tary, requesting him to forward immediately to 

 tlie acting secretary the minutes of the last 

 meeting, together with the Constitution. 



The Treasurer's report was read and approved. 

 The retiring President then read a very able and 

 instructive paper on bee culture, which was 

 highly appreciated, and a vote of thaidcs was 

 tendered to him for the thought and research 

 which ho had given to the subject. 



The election of officers for the ensuing year 

 was taken up, and resulted in the chosing of the 

 following geutlenifu : 



President. — M. Quinby, St. Johnsville, N. Y. 



Vice President. — C. C. Van Deusen, Sprout 

 Brooke, N. Y. 



Secretary. — J. H. Nellis, Canajoharie, N. Y. 



Treasurer.— i. E. Hetheringtou, Cherry Val- 

 ley, N. Y. 



An opportunity of joining was given to persons 

 not already connected with the association, and 

 those who were members during the past year, 

 renewed tlieir connection by paying to the trea.su- 

 rer the sum required annually. (Any person 

 may join the association, or renew his connection 

 therewith, by sending one dollar with name and 

 address to the Secretary.) 



Adjourned to Ih o'clock in the evening. 



EVENING SESSION. 



Meeting called to order by the President. 

 Minutes of last session read and approved. 



Introducing of queens was made the subject 

 of discussion, for the purpose of eliciting experi- 

 ence with the last and mo.st approved methods. 



ISIr. Van Deusen said, in making artilicial 

 swarms he had practised the foUuwing method 

 successfully. Remove the stock from which a 

 swarm is to be taken to a new station, some feet 

 distant, and place a hive filled with empty combs 



on the old stand. Take the queen, with about 

 a quart of bees, from the old stock, and put 

 them into the hive containing the empty comb. 

 The bees returning from the fields enter the 

 hive on the old stand, and when evening comes, 

 most of the old bees have returned to this hive — 

 making it .strong in numbers. In the evening, a 

 queen is smeared with honey and dropped into 

 the top of tlie hive from which the swarm was 

 taken. It makes no difierence whether the queen 

 is fertilized or not, as the young bees are very 

 easily satisfied. The operation should be per- 

 formed on a fair day. He had introduced Ital- 

 ian queens to black stocks in the fall, by remov- 

 ing the black queens and thoroughly smoking 

 the hive with tobacco, after which the Italian 

 queens were rolled in honey and dropped among 

 the bees. 



Mr. Root objected to tobacco smoke, as it 

 leaves the bees very irritable. 



Mr. Quinby thought safety in introducing a 

 queen deijends on having all the bees well filled 

 with honey when she is put among them, and 

 recommended bee keepers to experiment with 

 this point in view. 



Mr. Vrooman said that one season, while using 

 the box hive, his bees were hanging idly on the 

 oittside of the hives, and to make a swarm, he 

 had removed a few bees from the fronts of several 

 of the ditterent hives, and uniting them in one 

 body, had put them in an empty hive on the top 

 of which a queen was confined by a tumbler. 

 After the bees were hived, the queen was allowed 

 to join them, and was kindly received. 



Mr. Stanton and others thought this method 

 could not be relied on, as the bees would be 

 likely to return to their respective stocks. 



Mr. Nellis had tried the method rt commended 

 by Baldwin Bros., Mrs. Tupper, and others, in 

 which the queen to be introduced, is confined iu 

 a wire-cloth cage, by old worn muslin, which the 

 bees are expected to remove. He did not think 

 highly of it, as out of five or six attempts he 

 had been successful only once. 



Mr. Hetherington liked the good old plau bet- 

 ter than any other. He had introduced seventy- 

 eight queens at one time, without losing a single 

 one. He described it as follows : Remove the 

 black queen, and let the hive alone seven days ; 

 at the expiration of that time, open the hive and 

 cut oft" all queen cells. After the combs are re- 



Eutered accorjiug to Act of Uoagress, iu the year 1S7(I, by Samuel Wagner, ia tlie office of the Librariaji of Cougrest',, 



Washiagton. 



